Learn a new language and get a new soul. ~Czech Proverb
What is phonics?
Children use phonological awareness in learning how to read. This requires the child to pay attention to language sounds, stress and intonation, as well as timing. When they listen to nursery rhymes, such as "Hey Diddle Diddle" below, they listen for rhythm, rhyme at the end of each line (highlighted below), as well as stresses on particular words:
Hey diddle diddle
The cat and the fiddle
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed
To see such fun
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
The individual words "diddle" and "fiddle" here sound similar, except for the initial phonemes /d/ and /f/. The same stands for words "moon" (/m/) and "spoon" (/s/ and /p/). Phonemic awareness is also used, except this just involves listening to sounds (phonemes). In this way, phonological awareness is more inclusive.
Teaching phonics and the alphabetic principle
Teachers need to ensure that when teaching students about the alphabet, that they also teach them the individual sounds that can be produced (Hill, 2006). This is important because although the English language has 26 letters, there are actually 40-44 phonemes (Hill, 2006). The alphabetic principle is important here. This is the idea that letters (or groups of letters) represent specific sounds (Hill, 2006). For example, the word "duck" can be broken down into the following phonemes:
duck= /d/ /u/ /k/ or d-u-ck ("ck" represents a single sound)
Letter knowledge and the ability to differentiate between different phonemes are two of the best predictors of reading achievement for children in their first years of schooling (Hill, 2006). If a child knows some letters, then they will have an easier time figuring out their sounds, because many letter names are related to the sounds they make. For example, the letter "b" ("bee") has a /b/ sound as its initial phoneme, meaning that children can determine its sound as /b/. They can then extend this knowledge to form whole words depending on sounds. A child may write the word "drive" as "JRIV", because these are the sounds heard in the word: /j/ /r/ /i/ and /v/.
drive =
dr
JR
i
I
ve
V
Teachers should teach easily-identified letters first, like "s". They can also introduce the vowels "a", "e", "i", "o" and "u", but should introduce visibly-similar consonants far apart ("g" and "y"), in order to minimise confusion (Hill, 2006).
Phonics sequencing
The following five stages provide a guide to the content of phonics, adapted from Hill (2006).
Stage 1: The letters of the alphabet
Consonant sounds, which form when there is an obstruction of air in the mouth or throat, occur throughout words. They are easily produced, although few may be difficult for younger children; /r/ and /l/ may be problematic as the tongue must be curled in order to make this sound. In addition, some consonants may form more than one sound. The letter "c" makes a soft /s/ sound in "city", but a hard /k/ sound in "cat". Therefore, it is common for children to spell "city" as "sity".
Vowel sounds, produced in the mouth, have no contact points between the lips, teeth and tongue. The mouth forms different shapes when different vowel sounds are made, as for the /u/ in "under" and /e/ in "wet". There are five short vowels which are harder to distinguish than the preceding and following consonants, as in the examples below:
VOWEL
SHORT
a
/a/ in bat
e
/e/ in men
i
/i/ in tip
o
/o/ in don
u
/u/ in cup
Stage 2: Onset and rime—common rimes
Every syllable can be split into an onset and a rime. The onset in a syllable is the consonant/s preceding the vowel, and the rime comprises the remaining letters, including the vowel. For example, the word "dog" can be split into "d" "og"; the former being the onset, and the latter the rime. Teachers can create activities using different onsets and rimes, to encourage students to experiment making new words. There are also several advantages to this approach:
children may find it easier to separate initial onsets and rimes than working with individual phonemes, because the child only has to find the vowel within the word
it is easier to identify rimes than single final phonemes
students can extend their knowledge of onsets and rimes to making new words, and they may also be able to identify more new words
Stage 3: Blends
A blend (or letter cluster) is formed when two or more letters combine. The maximum number of letters in a blend at the beginning of a syllable is three, and interestingly, the third letter is always "r" or "l", as in "string" or "split". They are usually categorised into two groups: those which occur at the start of single-syllable words, and those which occur at the end. Some never occur in the same syllable; for example the "bj" in "object" is split across the two syllables: "ob"+"ject".
There are only three consonant blends which occur at both the beginning and end of words: "sp" ("spell"/"grasp"), "sk" or "sc" ("school"/"ask"), and "st" ("stage"/"rust"). All other blends only occur in one position. However, quite often the blend may be reversed, as in "flop"/"elf".
Stage 4: Digraphs and other letter combinations
Digraphs occur when two or more letters combine to make a single sound, and can be made of either vowels or consonants.
Consonant digraphs are seen in the words "chin" ("ch"), "rush" ("sh") and "sing" ("ng"). Vowel digraphs however, are a little more complicated. They are only formed of two letters, and there are only five long vowel sounds that often have the same sound as their name:
long a
cake, bait, late
long e
see, flea, beak
long i
sigh, fly, buy
long o
slow, toe, boat
long u
blue, tune, few
The "oo" words are produced in two main ways:
the sound heard in "book", "good"
the sound heard in "moon", "boot"
However, there are always exceptions to the rule; these being the words "flood"/"blood" and "door"/"floor".
Diphthongs are vowels which are made from two distinct vowel sounds, for example the vowel sounds heard in "boy", "hear" and "care".
The schwa sound, represented by an upside-down "e", is the final sound heard in "roses", sounding similar to the first syllable in the word "apart" (like a short /u/ sound).
Stage 5: Structural analysis
This concept involves making alterations to a base word. Inflectional endings for plural and tense (-ed, -ing, -s), prefixes (pre-, un-) and suffixes (-less) can all be added to a base word to create a new meaning.
Words can also be divided into syllables. The number of syllables depends on the number of vowel sounds in the word, as each syllable must contain one vowel phoneme.
There are some rules which should be remembered:
Syllables divide between doubled consonants. For example, happen = hap + pen
A single consonant between two vowels belongs with the second syllable. For example, famous = fa + mous
Consonant digraphs ("ch", "th" etc.) and consonant blends are not divided: teach + er
The suffixes -ble, -cle, -dle, -gle, -kle, -ple, -tle, -zle form the final syllable in the words in which they appear: can + dle
Final "e"s must be dropped before adding suffixes beginning with a vowel to words ending in "e": bake—baked—baking etc.
Words that contain a single vowel and end with a single consonant usually double that consonant before adding an ending beginning with a vowel: big—bigger—biggest
Contractions are also important in a child's language. They need to recognise a number of things:
they are made from two or more words
they omit one or more letters from these words, and place an apostrophe where letters have been deleted
the word has the same meaning, but has its own distinct pronunciation
e.g. can not = can't, they have = they've
Compound words are comprised of two words which when put together, form a whole new word. For example, butter + fly = butterfly.
Learn a new language and get a new soul. ~Czech Proverb
What is phonics?
Children use phonological awareness in learning how to read. This requires the child to pay attention to language sounds, stress and intonation, as well as timing. When they listen to nursery rhymes, such as "Hey Diddle Diddle" below, they listen for rhythm, rhyme at the end of each line (highlighted below), as well as stresses on particular words:
The cat and the fiddle
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed
To see such fun
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
Teaching phonics and the alphabetic principle
Teachers need to ensure that when teaching students about the alphabet, that they also teach them the individual sounds that can be produced (Hill, 2006). This is important because although the English language has 26 letters, there are actually 40-44 phonemes (Hill, 2006). The alphabetic principle is important here. This is the idea that letters (or groups of letters) represent specific sounds (Hill, 2006). For example, the word "duck" can be broken down into the following phonemes:
Teachers should teach easily-identified letters first, like "s". They can also introduce the vowels "a", "e", "i", "o" and "u", but should introduce visibly-similar consonants far apart ("g" and "y"), in order to minimise confusion (Hill, 2006).
Phonics sequencing
The following five stages provide a guide to the content of phonics, adapted from Hill (2006).
Stage 1: The letters of the alphabet
Consonant sounds, which form when there is an obstruction of air in the mouth or throat, occur throughout words. They are easily produced, although few may be difficult for younger children; /r/ and /l/ may be problematic as the tongue must be curled in order to make this sound. In addition, some consonants may form more than one sound. The letter "c" makes a soft /s/ sound in "city", but a hard /k/ sound in "cat". Therefore, it is common for children to spell "city" as "sity".
Vowel sounds, produced in the mouth, have no contact points between the lips, teeth and tongue. The mouth forms different shapes when different vowel sounds are made, as for the /u/ in "under" and /e/ in "wet". There are five short vowels which are harder to distinguish than the preceding and following consonants, as in the examples below:
Stage 2: Onset and rime—common rimes
Every syllable can be split into an onset and a rime. The onset in a syllable is the consonant/s preceding the vowel, and the rime comprises the remaining letters, including the vowel. For example, the word "dog" can be split into "d" "og"; the former being the onset, and the latter the rime. Teachers can create activities using different onsets and rimes, to encourage students to experiment making new words. There are also several advantages to this approach:
Stage 3: Blends
A blend (or letter cluster) is formed when two or more letters combine. The maximum number of letters in a blend at the beginning of a syllable is three, and interestingly, the third letter is always "r" or "l", as in "string" or "split". They are usually categorised into two groups: those which occur at the start of single-syllable words, and those which occur at the end. Some never occur in the same syllable; for example the "bj" in "object" is split across the two syllables: "ob"+"ject".
There are only three consonant blends which occur at both the beginning and end of words: "sp" ("spell"/"grasp"), "sk" or "sc" ("school"/"ask"), and "st" ("stage"/"rust"). All other blends only occur in one position. However, quite often the blend may be reversed, as in "flop"/"elf".
Stage 4: Digraphs and other letter combinations
Digraphs occur when two or more letters combine to make a single sound, and can be made of either vowels or consonants.
Consonant digraphs are seen in the words "chin" ("ch"), "rush" ("sh") and "sing" ("ng"). Vowel digraphs however, are a little more complicated. They are only formed of two letters, and there are only five long vowel sounds that often have the same sound as their name:
However, there are always exceptions to the rule; these being the words "flood"/"blood" and "door"/"floor".
Diphthongs are vowels which are made from two distinct vowel sounds, for example the vowel sounds heard in "boy", "hear" and "care".
The schwa sound, represented by an upside-down "e", is the final sound heard in "roses", sounding similar to the first syllable in the word "apart" (like a short /u/ sound).
Stage 5: Structural analysis
This concept involves making alterations to a base word. Inflectional endings for plural and tense (-ed, -ing, -s), prefixes (pre-, un-) and suffixes (-less) can all be added to a base word to create a new meaning.
Words can also be divided into syllables. The number of syllables depends on the number of vowel sounds in the word, as each syllable must contain one vowel phoneme.
There are some rules which should be remembered:
Contractions are also important in a child's language. They need to recognise a number of things:
- they are made from two or more words
- they omit one or more letters from these words, and place an apostrophe where letters have been deleted
- the word has the same meaning, but has its own distinct pronunciation
e.g. can not = can't, they have = they'veCompound words are comprised of two words which when put together, form a whole new word. For example, butter + fly = butterfly.